Edmund Waller’s “Song” -2

AG: So what have we got? The main thing, I guess, is ..to see if the effect.. the fact that it’s a song, and so the breath is real slow (actually, probably a slow-ish song to begin with – I would guess something like “Go lovely rose” (Allen attempts singing) or something like that – but “Da da-da” ..what is it? “Go, lovely rose” – Go, love-ly rose” “Go lovely rose” Go lovely rose” (Allen tries different melodies) …whatever.. There probably was music for this. “Tell her that wastes her time and me,” – but it’s a song , like, “Go lovely rose/Tell her that wastes her time and me” – when you talk it like that.- “Tell her that wastes her time and me” -there’s hardly any unaccented syllables, they’re all very definite -“Tell her that wastes her time and me” – every single syllable seems to have a stress, or bent, or a longer duration, or solid duration, or solidity in the pronunciation (it isn’t “Tell her/ that wastes/ her time/ and me” or “Tell her that..” – “Tell her that/ wastes/ her time. and me”.) – So the stress there isn’t divided like iambic or trochaic, but there seems to be something that’s just some solid breath, some solid breath or solid pronunciation for every single syllable there – “Tell her that wastes her time and me” -(it’s almost like every vowel is equal, every syllable is equal..almost.. . if you…because it’s so intense , or straight, or something so exact. It isn’t like regular English verse there).

Is that clear? It isn’t like regular English sing-song. It doesn’t fall into regular English stress easily. It could, as I said, go “Go lovely rose/Tell her that wastes….” It isn’t a cadence that you would say if you were really saying it or singing it.

“That now she knows/,When I resemble her to thee” – (well, there you get a little more – “When I resemble her to thee” – you can get that a little more into the regular iambic cadence) – “How sweet and fair she seems to be” – How sweet-and-fair/ she seems to be”

(but count – ” that wastes her time and me” is definitely slowed down) –

“Tell her that’s young…” – (those syllables all seem equal) – “And shuns to have her graces spied’ – (well, “shuns-to-have-her-graces-spied’) – “That hadst thou sprung” – (and that “That hadst thou sprung”, you’ve got to slow it again) – ‘In des-erts/ where no men abide/Thou must have uncommended died” – (there’s just an equality, there seems to be, like, an equality , syllable by syllable, of weight and duration, relative equality (it’s not exact) Does that make sense?

Am I talking something that doesn’t.. that’s too abstract?. Or are we all… does it make sense to you, Mark at all?

Student (Mark): The first and third lines would have longer durations (then)?

AG: Oh yes.. within each line

Student; Well, syllables, in terms of the the music

AG: Oh yes.. well – “Tell her that’s young,/And shuns to have her graces spied’ – that’s longer. I just meant that, within each line – “Tell her that’s young”, or “Go lovely rose” – practically every syllable is about the same – “-ly” is a little shorter – “Tell her that wastes her time and me” – just in, within that one line, almost every word is so definite and slowed and solid, like a little square rock, each one, put in place, that it doesn’t seem to fit the schemes and counts of regular English prosody, unless you take into account duration of syllables, quantity, as being the thing that has got his ear hearing, or song itself’ – (Allen begins singing) – “Tell her that wastes her time and me” – in. you know.. that’s a real nice slow melody, a slow tune there, and can be pronounced slowly – I don’t think he’d be singing it (Allen sings swiftly and jauntily) -“Tell her that wastes her time and me”, – It’s much more serious, it’s very serious

(Allen then makes an attempts at singing the whole poem) – “Tell her that wastes her time – and me”/That now/ she knows” – it’s more like that -“That now/ she knows”/When I resemble her to thee…”….. “Then die—that she/The common fate of all things rare/May read in thee;/How small a part of time they share/That are so wondrous sweet and fair!”